The Brock Badgers baseball team is headed home with its first provincial medal medal in eight seasons.
Off the back of starting pitcher Jack Tiessen, the Badgers defeated the Queen's Gaels 9-5 in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) bronze medal game on Saturday, Oct. 12 at the Ajax Sportsplex in Ajax.
"We wanted to finish the season with a medal, and especially, for our seniors, to finish off with a good game," said Brock pitching coach Fabio Del Rio. "We're happy for our seniors, Ashton Feijo, Cole Carpenter and Ethan Pasco, who finished with either hits or intentional walks in their last at-bats which is pretty cool."
After dropping their semifinal contest on Friday, Oct. 11 in heartbreaking 12-10 fashion, the Badgers responded with a complete performance.
OUA Bronze Medal Game: Brock 9 - Queen's 5
The Badgers scored in four of their six innings at bat as they controlled the momentum of the seven-inning game from start to finish.
On the mound, Tiessen had the strongest performance of his young career, pitching all seven innings and striking out eight hitters. The Leamington, ON product threw an astounding 142 pitches in the contest as he gave up eight hits and five earned runs.
"He battled and scrapped and cares about doing it for the team," Del Rio said. "We're proud of him and the progress he made since last year and those are the guys we want to coach for — players who want to work hard and get better."
A balanced showing from the Brock bats helped propel them to the win as they had three players (Carpenter, Reid Lunney, Flynn Matheson) notch two runs batted in (RBI).
The Badgers opened the scoring in the second with a double from Matheson and followed it up with a three-run third inning to take a 4-2 lead.
Two runs in the fourth inning and a three-run sixth powered by Pasco's single and Lunney's RBI double helped give the Badgers a comfortable cushion heading into the seventh and final inning.
Despite giving up two runs, Tiessen held strong, forcing Nicholas Hum of the Gaels to pop out to end the game.
Tyson Gomm, a second-year catcher, led all hitters with three hits which all came from singles.
Both teams were close in the hit department as the Badgers led with nine and the Gaels had eight.
Queen's gave up three errors in the contest compared to just one given up by Brock.
OUA Semifinal Brock 10 - Waterloo 12
A valiant late six-run ninth inning rally effort was not enough as the Waterloo Warriors secured their place in the gold medal game with a 12-10 victory.
Lunney led both sides with a game-high three RBI with a home run in the ninth that brought home two runners and a single in the third inning.
Despite both teams scoring in two separate innings, the game was deadlocked at 3-3 after five innings of play.
The sixth inning is where the offensive outburst took place for the Warriors as they saw nine runners cross the plate.
With their championship hopes in the balance, the Badgers showed a determined effort in the ninth as they drove in six runners. Lunney's three-run home run was the highlight of the inning whereas Carpenter and Tyson Gomm also earned RBIs in the inning.
In the game, the Badgers used five pitchers with starter Charlie Hughes going four innings, giving up three runs and striking out five. He also walked two and surrendered six hits.
Evan Marks was credited with the loss after giving up eight runs in one and two-third innings of work.
The Badgers were outhit 16-9 in the contest but only gave up one error in the field compared to five from the Warriors.
"I'm really encouraged about the future of our team. Those three seniors are important guys but our pitching staff is 90% first and second-year players," Del Rio said. "Our hitting lineup is strong and got great experience this year. We got over a big hump and shown that we can play with anybody but also shows some of the work we have to do."
